Hypertension and diabetes control: faith-based centres offer a promise for expanding screening services and linkage to care in Ghana.

Background: Hypertension and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are important contributors to noncommunicable disease related morbidity and mortality. Health systems could benefit from exploring the use of Faith-Based Centres (FBC) to screen and link suspected cases for further care in order to help achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3. The study investigated the role of faith-based screening for T2DM and hypertension and the linkage of cases to the healthcare system and examined the care cascade in the Kassena Nankana Districts of Northern Ghana.

Experiences of Teaching and Learning Pediatric Pain Management in Ghana.

Background: The literature has revealed gaps in knowledge and attitudes regarding pediatric pain management among Ghanaian nurses and nursing students that can be attributed to inadequate education in the area. Consequently, nursing tutors teaching pain management might not have the appropriate knowledge to transfer to their students.

Purpose: To explore nursing tutors' experiences of teaching pediatric pain management as well as their students' learning experiences before and after the tutors' training workshop.

Early life ambient air pollution, household fuel use, and under-5 mortality in Ghana.

Introduction: Environmental exposures, such as ambient air pollution and household fuel use affect health and under-5 mortality (U5M) but there is a paucity of data in the Global South. This study examined early-life exposure to ambient particulate matter with a diameter of 2.5 µm or less (PM), alongside household characteristics (including self-reported household fuel use), and their relationship with U5M in the Navrongo Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS) in northern Ghana.

Effect of national immunisation campaigns with oral polio vaccine on all-cause mortality in children in rural northern Ghana: 20 years of demographic surveillance cohort data.

Background: Studies from Guinea-Bissau and Bangladesh have shown that campaigns with oral polio vaccine (C-OPV) may be associated with 25-31% lower child mortality. Between 1996 and 2015, Ghana had 50 national C-OPVs and numerous campaigns with vitamin A supplementation (VAS), and measles vaccine (MV). We investigated whether C-OPVs had beneficial non-specific effects (NSEs) on child survival in northern Ghana.

Impact of community health interventions on maternal and child health indicators in the upper east region of Ghana.

Background: This paper reports on results of a health system strengthening implementation research initiative conducted the Upper East Region of northern Ghana. Transformative interventions to accelerate and strengthen the health delivery were implemented that included empowering community leaders and members to actively participate in health delivery, strengthening the referral systems through the provision of community transport systems, providing basic medical equipment to community clinics, and improving the skills of critical health staff through training.

Methods: A mixed method design was used to evaluate the impact of the interventions.

They patronize herbal medicine, coincidence or planned behaviour: A case of hypertensive patients in Tamale?

Aim: This study assessed, if use of herbal medicine (HM) among hypertensive patients is coincidence or planned.

Design: Cross-sectional survey.

Methods: The study used a cross-sectional survey for collection of data from four (4) herbal medicine clinics in the Tamale metropolis in northern Ghana.

A Qualitative Study on Frontline Nurses' Experiences and Challenges in Providing Care for COVID-19 Patients in the Volta Region of Ghana: Implications for Nursing Management and Nursing Workforce Retention.

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, studies related to the COVID-19 pandemic have been published widely. However, there are limited qualitative studies in Ghana that explored and shed light on frontline nurses' experiences and challenges in caring for patients diagnosed with COVID-19. This study aimed to explore frontline nurses' experiences and challenges of providing care for COVID-19 patients in the Volta Region of Ghana.

Communication, information, involvement and decision making: A systematic scoping review of child-parent-nurse relationships during postoperative pain management.

Aims: To examine the existing literature on child-parent-nurse relationships (in relation to communication, information, and involvement and decision-making) during postoperative pain management.

Background: Pain in children is under-reported and under-treated in hospitals and research has continued to report high rates of pain among hospitalised children worldwide. The role of child-parent-nurse relationships may be a factor and to date, no review has been identified that focus on these relationships during postoperative pain management.

Does Education Improve Nurses' Knowledge, Attitudes, Skills, and Practice in Relation to Pain Management? An Integrative Review.

Background: Pain is undertreated in both adults and children and a major factor linked to this is nurses' lack of knowledge as evidenced by studies undertaken globally.

Objective: This review sought to explore the effects educational interventions can have on nurses' knowledge, attitudes, skills, and practice regarding pain management.

Design: An integrative review DATA SOURCES: Systematic search of CINAHL, MEDLINE, AMED, EMBASE, and Psych INFO.

The impact of education on the knowledge and attitudes of Ghanaian nurse tutors towards the assessment and management of pain in children: A quantitative study.

Background: Undertreatment of pain in children is an international problem as many children reports unresolved moderate to severe pain. One key factor which may contribute to under treatment of pain in children by nurses is lack of knowledge. In Ghana opportunities for nurses to learn about pediatric pain have been limited due to gaps in the undergraduate curriculum and inadequate continuing professional education post qualification.

Racial and Ethnic Differences in the Association Between Classical Cardiovascular Risk Factors and Common Carotid Intima-Media Thickness: An Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis.

Background The major risk factors for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease differ by race or ethnicity but have largely been defined using populations of European ancestry. Despite the rising prevalence of cardiovascular disease in Africa there are few related data from African populations. Therefore, we compared the association of established cardiovascular risk factors with carotid-intima media thickness (CIMT), a subclinical marker of atherosclerosis, between African, African American, Asian, European, and Hispanic populations.

Factors associated with pregnancy uptake decisions among seropositive HIV people receiving antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review.

Aim: This study determined the factors associated with pregnancy uptake decision among seropositive HIV people receiving antiretroviral therapy in sub-Saharan Africa.

Design: Systematic review.

Methods: The population, intervention, comparison and outcomes framework was adopted to search for literature after a scoping review using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines adopted in searching, and screening articles from four databases (PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Embase, and Google scholar) to find 12 articles suitable for this study.

Modeling the impact of early interventions on the transmission dynamics of coronavirus infection.

A deterministic model is proposed to describe the transmission dynamics of coronavirus infection with early interventions. Epidemiological studies have employed modeling to unravel knowledge that transformed the lives of families, communities, nations and the entire globe. The study established the stability of both disease free and endemic equilibria.

Qualitative exploration of the challenges and the benefits of the nursing process in clinical practice: A study among registered nurses in a municipal hospital in Ghana.

Aim: This study aims to explore the challenges and benefits of using the nursing process in a Ghanaian Hospital.

Design: The study employed a qualitative descriptive design to explore the challenges and the benefits of the utilization of the nursing process.

Methods: Twelve (12) Registered Nurses were recruited for the study using purposive sampling.

Irrigation water quality and its impact on the physicochemical and microbiological contamination of vegetables produced from market gardening: a case of the Vea Irrigation Dam, U.E.R., Ghana.

The rationale for this study was to assess the physicochemical and bacteriological qualities of the Vea irrigation water and resultant effects on the quality of fresh vegetables produced in the area and associated implications for consumers' health. A total of 45 water samples were collected from the reservoir and canals. Also, 16 vegetable samples comprising four samples each of tomatoes, carrots, spring onions, and cabbages were collected from four farms with installed irrigation systems fed by the Vea Dam.

Mathematical Analysis of an Industrial HIV/AIDS Model that Incorporates Carefree Attitude Towards Sex.

A nonlinear differential equation model is proposed to study the dynamics of HIV/AIDS and its effects on workforce productivity. The disease-free equilibrium point of the model is shown to be locally asymptotically stable when the associated basic reproduction number [Formula: see text] is less than unity. The model is also shown to exhibit multiple endemic states for some parameter values when [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text].

Geochemical evolution and tracing of groundwater salinization using different ionic ratios, multivariate statistical and geochemical modeling approaches in a typical semi-arid basin.

The vulnerability of semi-arid basin aquifers to long-term salinization due to the dissolution of groundwater chemical constituents is a major global problem. Despite this, resilient techniques of tracing the sources of groundwater salinization in semi-arid basin aquifers are still evolving due to the aquifer complexities. This study proves the effectiveness of the use of different ionic ratios, multivariate statistical, and geochemical modeling approaches to understand groundwater evolution and trace salinization in the semi-arid Pru Basin of Ghana.

A Clipped Gaussian Geo-Classification model for poverty mapping.

The importance of discrete spatial models cannot be overemphasized, especially when measuring living standards. The battery of measurements is generally categorical with nearer geo-referenced observations featuring stronger dependencies. This study presents a Clipped Gaussian Geo-Classification (CGG-C) model for spatially-dependent ordered data, and compares its performance with existing methods to classify household poverty using Ghana living standards survey (GLSS 6) data.